Patterns, Creativity and the Gift of Analogy
By Chris Cathey
Copyright 2010
Brains seem to be extraordinarily efficient at recognizing the elements that go together to form a pattern. They not only love to but are very good at recognizing, completing and correcting patterns that they experience in the world (The question as to whether or not an individual’s experience of a particular set of patterning is resource or unresourceful is another matter all together). It’s because reality has structure that this all works. If reality was not stable in the way that it is there would be no way that our brains could memorize the patterning that we are immersed in everyday. Let alone would it be able to make predictions regarding our experience based on these patterns.
So how does the brain do this? It does this using our five senses. At any point in time reoccurring elements of experience are being recorded into our neurology through our ability to touch, see, hear, smell, taste. The way that experience is coded is that a certain stimulus is registered through our sense receptors it makes its way to our brain where collection of fibers (axons) process this information via electrical pulses also called ‘spikes’ thus creating neural pathways (neural patterns).
People typically get stuck when they begin to operate utilizing patterns that limit them in some form or fashion. When someone gets stuck it’s because whenever they come into contact with a particular element of an experience it fires off a particular neural patterning. Change the neural patterning and change the experience, problem solved. Well it’s not that easy and it is at the same time.
A lot of interesting problems in life have been solved as a result of someone acting in a creative way. Quite often someone comes in takes a look at a problem and poof as if by magic a solution is born. How is this possible? If we accept the premise that every experience has certain elements that go into comprising it then sometimes if we do something as simple as rearranging the way that we represent the elements to ourselves we will fire off different neural patterns that will help us to find a solution to what ails us.
A while back I had decided that I wanted to share some of the knowledge that I had been working on for the last couple years. I had posted some video blogs and allowed it so that people could post their comments just so that I could get the feedback. One of the comments from someone that I don’t remember said that I was boring and that I need to model some decent public speakers. I didn’t feel too bad about it because through the years I’ve met some of these people that post comments on discussion boards and really haven’t been impressed. Anyhow I was in a video chat amongst other people and a friend of mine was about to do short mini seminar. I mentioned this experience to them and they said to me something to the effect of, “Are you here to be a public speaker or are you here to impart ideas?” Interesting reframe, I like it.
Funny thing, just from this example alone we can see how there were certain elements of my experience that were present in both the way that I had coded the experience in my neurology and how my friend reframed it back to me.
The way I coded the experience there was:
1.) Me.
2.) The audience to whom I was speaking.
3.) The criticism.
4.) What I was doing. (Public Speaking)
The way that my friend communicated the situation to me using his reframe the following elements were present:
1.) Me.
2.) The audience to whom I was speaking.
3.) The criticism.
4.) What I was doing. (Imparting ideas)
One element that went into comprising the overall pattern was shifted and that altered the implications of that experience. Some mathematicians come across problems that they can’t solve a particular way so they have to solve it using different mathematical methods. If I run a business and I treat my employees like family the implications of how I interact with them will be astoundingly different than if I treat them like servants. In good times and in bad the way that we interact will be significant.
Some guys when they speak of talking to women say that they are afraid of crashing and burning. It’s like they never get off the ground. Sometimes the best thing that you can do is to redescribe an experience and keep redescribing it until you arrive at a solution. Often they will just come to you. Why is this? It’s because every description carries with it different elements that make up a pattern. Different patterns activate correspondingly different neural patterns. Eventually your brain will make a connection, it will be able to recall from previous experience a situation that shares similar elements and how it solved the problem.
So as an interesting experiment:
1.) Think of something that you’re working on a problem that has you stumped.
2.) Ask yourself, “How else can I think of this?” “What is this situation like?” What else is this situation like? “How else can I think of this again?” What’s a different way of representing this situation to myself?”
3.) Just keep playing around with different ways of interpreting the experience. If it’s something your typing up, try writing it down, if it’s something your writing down, try drawing it. Rearrange paragraphs and sentences if it’s a paper you’re working on. Focus on the experience in general and then a specific aspect and vice versa. The important thing is that you constantly shift how you think of the experience thereby activating different neural patterning within your brain.
4.) Give it sometime. This is the best way to be creative.
So how does the brain do this? It does this using our five senses. At any point in time reoccurring elements of experience are being recorded into our neurology through our ability to touch, see, hear, smell, taste. The way that experience is coded is that a certain stimulus is registered through our sense receptors it makes its way to our brain where collection of fibers (axons) process this information via electrical pulses also called ‘spikes’ thus creating neural pathways (neural patterns).
People typically get stuck when they begin to operate utilizing patterns that limit them in some form or fashion. When someone gets stuck it’s because whenever they come into contact with a particular element of an experience it fires off a particular neural patterning. Change the neural patterning and change the experience, problem solved. Well it’s not that easy and it is at the same time.
A lot of interesting problems in life have been solved as a result of someone acting in a creative way. Quite often someone comes in takes a look at a problem and poof as if by magic a solution is born. How is this possible? If we accept the premise that every experience has certain elements that go into comprising it then sometimes if we do something as simple as rearranging the way that we represent the elements to ourselves we will fire off different neural patterns that will help us to find a solution to what ails us.
A while back I had decided that I wanted to share some of the knowledge that I had been working on for the last couple years. I had posted some video blogs and allowed it so that people could post their comments just so that I could get the feedback. One of the comments from someone that I don’t remember said that I was boring and that I need to model some decent public speakers. I didn’t feel too bad about it because through the years I’ve met some of these people that post comments on discussion boards and really haven’t been impressed. Anyhow I was in a video chat amongst other people and a friend of mine was about to do short mini seminar. I mentioned this experience to them and they said to me something to the effect of, “Are you here to be a public speaker or are you here to impart ideas?” Interesting reframe, I like it.
Funny thing, just from this example alone we can see how there were certain elements of my experience that were present in both the way that I had coded the experience in my neurology and how my friend reframed it back to me.
The way I coded the experience there was:
1.) Me.
2.) The audience to whom I was speaking.
3.) The criticism.
4.) What I was doing. (Public Speaking)
The way that my friend communicated the situation to me using his reframe the following elements were present:
1.) Me.
2.) The audience to whom I was speaking.
3.) The criticism.
4.) What I was doing. (Imparting ideas)
One element that went into comprising the overall pattern was shifted and that altered the implications of that experience. Some mathematicians come across problems that they can’t solve a particular way so they have to solve it using different mathematical methods. If I run a business and I treat my employees like family the implications of how I interact with them will be astoundingly different than if I treat them like servants. In good times and in bad the way that we interact will be significant.
Some guys when they speak of talking to women say that they are afraid of crashing and burning. It’s like they never get off the ground. Sometimes the best thing that you can do is to redescribe an experience and keep redescribing it until you arrive at a solution. Often they will just come to you. Why is this? It’s because every description carries with it different elements that make up a pattern. Different patterns activate correspondingly different neural patterns. Eventually your brain will make a connection, it will be able to recall from previous experience a situation that shares similar elements and how it solved the problem.
So as an interesting experiment:
1.) Think of something that you’re working on a problem that has you stumped.
2.) Ask yourself, “How else can I think of this?” “What is this situation like?” What else is this situation like? “How else can I think of this again?” What’s a different way of representing this situation to myself?”
3.) Just keep playing around with different ways of interpreting the experience. If it’s something your typing up, try writing it down, if it’s something your writing down, try drawing it. Rearrange paragraphs and sentences if it’s a paper you’re working on. Focus on the experience in general and then a specific aspect and vice versa. The important thing is that you constantly shift how you think of the experience thereby activating different neural patterning within your brain.
4.) Give it sometime. This is the best way to be creative.